[AD&D Gamebook] Sceptre of Power (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 1 of 3)

[Jfdlsjfd]

Gamebook Mechanics







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I fear that the Exterminate cantrip will end up extremely disappointing and that we won't be able to summon an army of Daleks. Was this spell designed by a wizard who had minored in Advertizing?

The book next explains the "Scoring System". I find that language weird; are these really "scores" like in a competitive sporting event?

I remember one of the most fun series of gamebook by J. H. Brennan called Grailquest that had a scoring system. You started with 1000 points and you lost one each time you died attempting the book. At the end of the book, there was an actual two pages covered with small boxes (possibly 1000) to keep track of the score. The books were extremely parodic, though and now I am thinking it was a parody of true scoring systems in gamebook of the time...

At any rate, we have Hit Points; Skill Points [analogous to Ability Scores in AD&D terms], and Spells.

Hit Points

Our "life strength" and when they are gone, Carr "ceases to exist". (Perhaps "is dead" was considered too harsh?)

They were targetting a young audience. Plus, gamebook appealed to bookish children who tended to read books above their age bracket. So... let's not involve too many adult things like death that might be shocking for a young audience. I mean, when I first read the Grey Star series, I wondered why we lugged around a NPC girl (yuck!) who was totally going to cause problem being tracked by the evil witch she had betrayed to save us for no discernable reason. A few years later, I reread the book as a teenager and it was quite obvious she was the MC's love interest.

These are how we do stuff in the game and we only have three of them, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma.

We're really not the brawny type.

For the purposes of this gamebook, we must first learn a spell before we can cast it. And then, once we cast it, it's gone; we only get to cast each spell once: "whenever you use a spell you have learned, you must erase it from your spellbook." Yikes!

And we thought Vancian magic was hardcore...

There's also an INT roll to cast a spell, so it's not guaranteed to work.

The bookmark-slash-character-sheet divides up our spells into three categories. At this point, we are not given any more information on what these do. Of course, if we've played AD&D before, we might know.

Cantrips

• Exterminate

Strong Spells

• Read Magic

Beware, I'll make myself able to read a magical graffitti! Or I could exterminate you. I suppose our father is an archmage, but we are still level 1?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Ulrik snaps out of it and tells his men to push us over the cliff. Wow. We've gone from "don't let Marla and her brat into the village" to "straight up murder them"!

I have noticed that we don't have a Wisdom score. This is illustrated by our choice of seeking medical help only when mum is close to death, and our choice of destination, probably the only village in the world where they would throw us from a cliff just for turning up. That doesn't bode well for finding a doctor.

We try to stand up, but the men have already started to heave the wagon over the cliff. We try to dive forward out of the cart (perhaps abandoning our mother to her fate?!), but it's too late. We plunge into the icy water and die in shock.

DEATH COUNT: 1

[Well, that was sudden! With a more average roll on our CHA check, we might've been able to bluff Ulrik successfully. But I'll pause here to reflect on my ignominious death.]

Those old gamebooks were unforgiving.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

31

We charge forward directly into Ulrik's fist, which knocks us to the ground. His two friends seize the cart and move to dump our mother over the cliff. Oh no! It's happening again! Err, I mean, holy crap these guys are going to MURDER her!

But suddenly Marla starts to glow, stands up, and her eyes "blaze with an inhuman fire" as she casts a fear spell. All three men run away. Way to go, mom!

We rush to her side and brush her sweat-plastered hair away from her forehead. She tells us that her illness is beyond the skills of Wendel the shaman and our ancestral spirits. She advises that we should seek out her brother Beldon in Freeton.

And then she dies.

OK, great start for the very young children who might have been shocked by the idea of their character dying. I retract everything I say.

Ulrik's cutlass

We lost a mum, but we gained a cutlass.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I fear that the Exterminate cantrip will end up extremely disappointing and that we won't be able to summon an army of Daleks.

Haha, right? That thought immediately struck me here in 2025... but not in 1986, because somehow in my youth I totally missed out on Doctor Who.

I remember one of the most fun series of gamebook by J. H. Brennan called Grailquest that had a scoring system. [...] The books were extremely parodic, though and now I am thinking it was a parody of true scoring systems in gamebook of the time...

I played Grailquest, but missed the parody implications as a child.

My objection to this gamebook's description of anything as "Scoring System" is that there's no payoff. You don't get to the end of the book and have a congratulatory paragraph on your "score". You also don't get to carry over your "scores" into future books. (Astute readers will have noticed that on the bookmark with my childhood scrawls, my INT increased by a few points while my CHA increased dramatically.)

They were targetting a young audience. Plus, gamebook appealed to bookish children who tended to read books above their age bracket.

Absolutely. It strikes me now that the language used is in no way written in "childish" prose. There are no deliberately short, simple subject/verb/object sentences. There are long paragraphs. There is subtle description. The backstory is delivered in asynchronous snippets. I have more trouble following it now than I probably did at 13!

So... let's not involve too many adult things like death that might be shocking for a young audience.

And yet... there's plenty of death. So much death. I've... ~~seen~~ read things you people wouldn't believe. Spells gone awry when I had a kink in my shoulder. Treasures that glitter in the dark luring fools to destruction. All those moments, lost in time, my tears falling like rain on the pages of the book.

At least until I went back to where I had left the bookmark and chose something else.

I suppose our father is an archmage, but we are still level 1?

Was an archmage, yes.

And as the intro of the book puts it:

"Although you don't realize it at the beginning of this adventure, your character class is that of a magic-user, a class you already show some inherent knack for, although you don't really understand why."

So we have an AD&D class, but the concept of character level itself never comes up; remember these book are simpler and easier than that overly complex AD&D that the books... are trying... to promote... waitaminute!

But rest assured that Carr will "level up" throughout the series. Oh yes, he will.

I have noticed that we don't have a Wisdom score. This is illustrated by our choice of seeking medical help only when mum is close to death, and our choice of destination, probably the only village in the world where they would throw us from a cliff just for turning up.

Indeed. Carr is an imbecilic ass in a lot of ways, and we'll see ample demonstration of that as the series progresses.

Those old gamebooks were unforgiving.

This one is less unforgiving (or more forgiving) than most. There are (to my recollection) fewer "screw you; you're dead" choices than many of the classic CYOAs (Choose Your Own Adventures). Although having said that... well, stay tuned!

 

[Joshua Randall]

58

Wendel is the clan's healer and priest of the ancestor cult. He lives near the wharf. Wendel was the only person nice to us when we arrived on Seagate Island two years ago. He allowed us to stay in "the abandoned shepherd's hut on the cliffs".

[If the shepherd's hut is abandoned, I guess we weren't keeping sheep after all? Or the hut was abandoned but the sheep hung around? Or there's no sheep, forget the sheep; and we did what adventurers do, which is break into huts and steal shoes.]

Wendel helps us carry Marla's body inside where he has a shrine full of dried leaves, flowers, and jars containing the ointments of his healing trade. He lays Marla down on a lion's pelt in front of the altar. [Presumably a mountain lion, not a savannah lion. Although this is D&D-world, so who knows.]

After a few moments, Wendel says there's nothing he can do and he closes our mother's eyes. We break down in tears for the second time in as many passages.

Turn to (2).

 

[Joshua Randall]

2

In a very long section, we tell Wendel that we've had the ability to do minor magical stuff from a young age (of course). Wendel explains these are cantrips and in response to our question of whether we inherited something evil from our father, informs us that while our father was far more powerful than "the combined strength of all our ancestral spirits", Wendel never sensed any evil in Landor.

We learn that Wendel helped us even though Arcleric Oram of Saven ordered our mother's capture. Wendel considers Oram a "senile fool", too.

Apparently Landor, our father, was so powerful that when he died, it upset the forces of life and death; so powerful that "even the Tikandian gods feared him". Our adjacency to coolness grows stronger!

Wendel convinces us to seek out our father's legacy, which is not the desperately needed money that might've kept Marla alive, but his spellbooks. Perhaps Uncle Beldon has them? Beldon is our mother's younger brother, and we last saw him in Saven just before we left the mainland for Seagate Island.

Wendel then tells us that Beldon lives in Freeton, near the wharves. We sense that Wendel is holding back some information but weirdly, we don't press him, nor are we even given an opportunity to skill check it out of him.

We say goodbye to Wendel and step out in the cold air to begin our journey with only the clothes on our back and Ulrik's cutlass.

Turn to (15).

 

[Joshua Randall]

An interlude about the game world. To the best of my knowledge, Tikandia is unique to the Kingdom of Sorcery trilogy and appears nowhere else.

There's no map (boo!) and only scattered references to a coherent geography. This bothered me so much as a teenager that I drew my own map; unfortunately, it's gone the way of all flesh.

From what we can tell so far, we're on an island (Seagate) off the coast of the main continent. The island is dotted with villages like Delmer, our mother's home town, and also holds a larger trading port, Freeton.

Saven, the abode of the archcleric Oram, will be featured more prominently later. As will the implied conflict between organized religion and the more "primitive" ancestor worshipers.

It is thus far unclear why we saw Beldon in Saven when he lives in Freeton….

Tikandia definitely has some cool details which I only hazily remember. So I'll be re-discovering them alongside all who read this.

 

[Joshua Randall]

15

[For those playing along at home, this is our fourth section in a row without any decisions nor skill tests. Which is quite disappointing to my 2025 sensibilities.]

We head out of town and are on the outskirts of Delmer when we hear a commotion from the waterfront. Ulrik has roused an angry mob and threatens to burn down Wendel's house -- even after Wendel informs them that Marla is dead and he is preparing for her funeral.

"Give us the witch and her demon-sired child!" the angry villagers demand.

We can either…

(27) take advantage of the commotion to sneak out of town, or
(54) stay in case the old cleric needs our help

 

[Joshua Randall]

54

It's been established that Wendel is the only person who was nice to us and he gave us important plot information. No way we are leaving him to the tender mercy of an angry mob!

An inner rage grows inside us. Not only has this mob turned on their own shaman, but also Ulrik keeps calling our father a demon, and that pisses us off.

We leap out and proclaim that they should fear us.

They don't.

They charge with makeshift weapons and our "only chance" is the nearby alley. Our feet slide on the packed snow and our heart pounds in our chest. Soon we see our pursuers enter the alley behind us -- and the bulky shapes of more men block the other end, sunlight glinting on their weapons.

We've successfully drawn the mob away from Wendel and our mother's body, but now we're trapped in an alley with no chance of escape.

DEATH COUNT: 2

---

A pretty lame death; we don't even get to read how our body was hacked up.

Also a pretty rail-roady death: why is that particular alley the "only chance" to escape? Why couldn't we make a DEX test to dodge around the mob, an INT test to find another way out of town, or even another CHA test to bluff them?

Instead the gamebook teaches you that when an angry mob threatens your only friend, you should throw said friend to the wolves and sneak away like a coward. What a bizarrely cynical lesson for the teenage audience to learn!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Well, you complained that you had 4 sections in a row without a choice, but look at what you do when you're given an actual choice! You die! Because you did the silly thing of... helping your friend and the one who's taking care of your mum's dead body, I guess. Follow the Jedi maxim: no attachement, no emotion. We traded our mum for a cutlass and it was upcycling! and now, we just leave this "friend" guy behind!